In 2005 the social video website Stickam debuted and quickly became a video wasteland for emo kids and weirdo’s looking to watch emo kids online. Now the video blog channel has announced that it will close down at Midnight.

Stickam officials did not give a reason for the closure, only announcing:

“We are very sad to announce Stickam will be closing down.”

As the name Stickam suggests users can “stick” and embed their videos on other websites. read more

Foursquare has lost product manager Christen Duong. After two years with the company she announced plans to move from New York City to San Francisco. Christen is making the move so she can join another starup, Flipboard.

Christen was a fast moving achiever for Foursquare, over her short time with the company she helped roll out a completely redesigned mobile app. She also helped role out the Explore tab for discovering new venues and helped in the development of contextual pages that show tips from friends alongside pictures they post.

Just as she did at Foursquare Duong will help Flipboard develop better content discovery methodologies for its various publishing partners. read more

Last month a group of students at animation and design school Centre NAD in Montreal posted a YouTube video of an Eagle as it snatched a baby and nearly carried it away. The video was originally thought to be genuine but was later revealed to be a hoax.

Now the school has announced that profits from the videos 41+ million pageviews will go to fund a scholarship fund for animation and design students at the school.

NAD spokesperson Claude Arsenault did not reveal how much money was raised by told Mashable:

“It will likely be divided into several scholarships aimed at recognizing excellence in our undergrad students.” read more

YouTube viewers may soon discover that some of the premium channels they like fo follow will cost them money to view. According to Jason Del Rey of AdAge, select YouTube channels will be placed behind a paywall in 2013.

According to Del Rey:

“YouTube is prepping to launch paid subscriptions for individual channels on its video platform in its latest attempt to lure content producers, eyeballs, and advertiser dollars away from traditional TV, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.”

The channel paywall content will range in price from $1 to $5 per month.

YouTube is said to have reached out to certain channel producers to gauge their interest in the program and to encourage application submissions for the new paywall product.

The idea of a YouTube payment platform shouldn’t come as a surprise, in 2012 a rep for the video platform revealed:

“We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models. The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform and viewers find more content to watch. There are a lot of our content creators that believe they would benefit from subscriptions.”

Are you willing to pay for premium YouTube content via certain channels?

Foursquare on Tuesday debuted a stand-alone mobile app geared towards businesses. The new app delivers the location based services Web business venue management tools to mobile devices. The app is targeted towards small business owners.

Available for Google Android and Apple iOS apps the new Business app allows business managers to create updates about their businesses and then push those updates out to current customers.

Business users can also use the new Foursquare app to share updates via Twitter and Facebook.

As an added benefit business owners can also turn on and off specials and monitor recent check-ins. read more

For many years digital video recorders (DVRs) offered stagnant technology that focused on a singular goal, recording in a fashion similar to traditional VCRs. However, in the last year Dish Network has rolled out its Hopper service and DirecTV has answered with the Genie DVR.

It is that DirecTV Genie service that has excited me once again about using DVR technology. Launched in December 2012 the DirecTV whole-house service offers the flexibility of DVR with the power of new technology.

The new service can serve up to eight televisions in a single home with four TVs recording shows at one time. Customers can sign up for the service with a new DirecTV contract and existing customers can upgrade for $300. DirecTV notes that many smart TVs, including new sets from Samsung come with the software already ready to be used by DirecTV customers.

As a new customers to DirecTV I was able to have the new technology installed with expert satellite installation at no additional cost and given the tech I received that was the cherry on top of the platform.

The Genie DVR comes in the form of the HR34 which features a nicely sized 1TB hard drive that connects to the homes main TV. Other TVs can then receive a C31 Genie Mini Client or customers can connect their RVU-capable Samsung HDTV. The nicest part about the C31 Genie Mini Client is that it is extremely small compared to the main box, making it the perfect choice for wall mounted and flat panel TVs.

One of the biggest generalized complaints in recently years from customers has been the dated interface found on traditional DVRs, to combat that dated UI DirecTV has added a new interface that includes five easy to browse sections that includes: My DirecTV, Search & Browse, Recordings, Extras and Settings & Help. That’s not to say the “dated” menu is gone, the unit still features a grid guide that can be accessed six channels at a time and a mini guide that can allow for TV browsing while keeping the original program on the TV screen.

My one personal complaint is that a centralized box for recording does mean the possibility of a single point for failed equipment, with that being said, not having to pay for expensive DVRs in each room is a huge plus, especially in a home with 5 television sets.

From expert satellite installation to a ton of new features I couldn’t be any happier with my DirecTV Genie service. Satellite isn’t for everyone but given my choices of expensive cable TV or an easily accessible DVR product from DirecTV I think I made the right choice.

When it comes to implementing various operating systems in a business environment application management can quickly become a headache. If the company you work for implements VMWare however those applications can be deployed at a faster rate and provide better performance across your company’s infrastructure.

Classes such as VMware VCP-510 exam are growing in popularity because businesses want employees who can fully implement IT infrastructures for more dynamic and flexible datacenters with datacenter virualization that meets enterprise application SLAs and can increase time-to-market for application provisioning and upgrades.

VMWare offers various benefits for the workplace, here are a few of those benefits from the team at VMWare: read more

Lately, there’s been a lot of emphasis on how high-quality blog content is not only more engaging for readers, but it also ranks better in search engines. However, making an impact in the blogging world is about more than just writing posts people want to read. That’s important, but there’s another very important element to consider: design.

Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to have some design expertise under your belt and don’t mind using those skills on your blog. If that situation doesn’t apply, you’ll soon see why it’s such a good idea to hire a designer.

Make Your Blog’s Template Your Own

Think of a template as an expression of your blog’s brand. Although it’s possible to purchase premium templates, wouldn’t you rather have one that’s all your own? A designer can be a great resource and create one that immediately gives readers clues about what to expect when coming to the blog for the first time.

Templates are also useful if you participate in themed blogging, where the majority of your content relates to a niche topic. Take 12 Keys’ blog, shown above, for example. As a recovery center, their blog reflects the bright and cheerful colors of their logo and their relaxing beachside location. Think about recruiting a designer to help you make small alterations to a template to reflect seasonal changes, as well. read more